Aston Villa boss Unai Emery praised Ollie Watkins’ desire after the striker scored two goals in the 3-3 draw with Brentford.
The England international was a doubt for the game with a hamstring injury but was passed fit and put his side ahead before rescuing a point after the Bees scored three goals in nine minutes to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
Watkins’ double took his Premier League tally to 18 for the season and he is firmly in the race for the Golden Boot, trailing Manchester City striker Erling Haaland by just one.
Emery said: “Ollie has been fantastic, his performances. Fantastic. He is very involved in the new demands we have as a club.
“Myself as a coach with them. And he is involving in it. His processes are getting better, his attitude every …
Brendan Rodgers declared his return to Celtic “a very simple decision” but he faced an instant reminder of the work needed to appease some fans who were unhappy with the manner of his exit.
Celtic confirmed Rodgers had signed a three-year contract to replace Ange Postecoglou as manager, four years and four months after his sudden departure to Leicester after winning seven out of seven domestic trophies with the Hoops.
The North Curve Celtic Twitter account, which represents the Green Brigade and other members of the standing section at Celtic Park, soon posted a photograph of the banner they displayed at Tynecastle 24 hours after he left for Leicester in February 2019.
— North Curve Celtic (@NCCeltic)
The sign read: “You traded immortali…
Sergio Busquets will play his 600th Barcelona game after he was named in Ronald Koeman s side for Saturday s LaLiga clash with Granada.
Spain international Busquets, a World Cup and Euros winner, made his LaLiga debut under Pep Guardiola in 2008.
Busquets has gone on to help Barca to eight league titles, six Copa del Rey triumphs and three Champions League trophies.
The 32-year-old started against Huesca on Sunday – Lionel Messi making his 500th LaLiga appearance for Barca in that match – and will now hit a milestone of his own.
It will be Busquets 396th LaLiga appearance, with the holding midfielder having scored nine league goals and provided 25 assists.
Barça appearances for !
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona)
A further…
Justin Kluivert has named Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Eden Hazard and Son Heung-min among his Premier League inspirations as he prepares to start his career in England with Bournemouth.
The Dutch attacker, son of Barcelona great Patrick Kluivert, has admired the impact made by Manchester City striker Haaland after arriving in the division.
Kluivert has joined Bournemouth from Roma ahead of the new Premier League season.
Having also had loan spells with RB Leipzig, Nice and Valencia, he will complete the set of playing in each of Europe s top five leagues when he makes his debut for the club.
Kluivert is delighted his chance to play in the Premier League has come and has been watching some of English football s greatest recent performers to prepare.…
The United States scored four unanswered goals in the second half to celebrate their first victory in 2022 CONCACAF World Cup qualifying with a 4-1 rout of Honduras.
CONCACAF Gold Cup and Nations League champions the USA had drawn their opening two fixtures on the road to Qatar 2022 but goals from Antonee Robinson, Ricardo Pepi, Brenden Aaronson and Sebastian Lletget kick-started their campaign.
After cancelling out Bryan Moya s 27th-minute opener, the USA are third in the Octagonal standings, level on five points with Canada and Panama, and two points behind leaders Mexico.
Honduras went into the match having not beaten the USA since their 2-1 World Cup qualifying victory in 2013.
Just a great finish from . We’re all tied up here in Honduras.
Northern Ireland captain Jonny Evans has announced his immediate retirement from international football.
Evans, 36, made his international debut in September 2006 against Spain and went on to make 107 appearances.
This is a record bettered only by Steve Davis, Pat Jennings and Aaron Hughes for Northern Ireland.
The Manchester United defender said: Putting on the green shirt 107 times and representing the people of Northern Ireland has been my biggest honour.
Thank you, Jonny Evans
— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland)
Evans featured for Northern Ireland in all four of their matches at Euro 2016, their first major tournament in 30 years.
He said: Without doubt the highlight of my international career has been the Euros in Fran…
David Alaba said everything is a shade bigger at Real Madrid compared to former side Bayern Munich as he learns to cope with the increased expectation to succeed.
Alaba s 13-year association with Bundesliga champions Bayern came to an end in May after rejecting numerous contract offers at the Allianz Arena and joining LaLiga giants Madrid.
The Austria international has started 13 of Madrid s 14 matches in all competitions this season – only Eder Militao and Thibaut Courtois have started more often – totalling 1,170 minutes on the field.
Alaba has featured in multiple positions and has instantly made himself a fans favourite with the opening goal in the 2-1 El Clasico victory over Madrid s fierce rivals Barcelona on October 24.
That made Alaba the fift…
Karim Benzema bailed out Real Madrid once again, but the French striker insisted the 2-1 win at Valencia was richly deserved, as their unbeaten LaLiga run stretched to 23 games.
The capital giants had trailed to a fine 66th-minute strike from Hugo Duro that looked set to take Valencia to the top of the table, but instead it is Madrid who sit on that perch with 13 points from five games.
Captain Benzema teed up Vinicius Junior to slot in an 86th-minute leveller, with the help of a deflection, before roles were reversed for the winner two minutes later.
A teasing cross from Vinicius was perfect for Benzema to attack, and although the ball went in off his shoulder rather than his forehead, as was the intention, they all count.
Benzema has now sco…
Ruslan Malinovskiy s stunner settled an enthralling Classique in Marseille s favour as they beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 to reach the Coupe de France quarter-finals.
Malinovskiy s fantastic winner was just reward for a scintillating Marseille display at Stade Velodrome on Wednesday.
Igor Tudor s team had 12 shots in the first half and took the lead through Alexis Sanchez s 31st-minute penalty, which was cancelled out by Sergio Ramos header.
Ramos thought he had sent the tie to penalties when he headed home in stoppage time, but the offside flag came to Marseille s salvation.
57 GOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!
MALIIIIIIIIIIIII!!! |
— Olympique de Marseille (@OM_English)
A frantic opening set the tone. Pau Lopez denied Nuno Mendes befo…
It s not easy to explain what exactly happened at Anfield on Sunday, apart from the obvious: Liverpool destroyed Manchester United, with Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed scoring twice each, and Roberto Firmino coming on from the bench to add insult to injury.
The game
United were on the back foot right from the start in this match, but for a while it seemed to be a part of manager Erik ten Hag s plan. With David De Gea in goal, Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez as the centre-backs, flanked by Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot on the right, protected by the ever-vigilant serial winner Casemiro and the admirable work-rate of Fred, they were hoping to absorb the pressure at the back and hunt the opposition through counterattacks, with the pace of Marcus Rashford and Antony, comple…